By Josh Baugh
The San Antonio Express-News
SAN ANTONIO — The president of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association said Tuesday he has filed a complaint with the state claiming the city’s Fire Department lacks adequate preparations to handle potential Ebola cases here — a charge city officials immediately denied.
Chris Steele, president of the firefighter union, said at a news conference that the city’s first responders have not received adequate training, that they don’t have requisite personal protective equipment for treating suspected Ebola cases and that the city doesn’t have appropriate protocols in place to handle an actual incident.
“The city does not protect the firefighters,” Steele said. “That’s why we’re here today.”
City officials responded with disproval.
City Manager Sheryl Sculley called the union’s news conference “a reckless attempt to alarm our community,” and Fire Chief Charles Hood said the city has completed significant preparation procedures and has “been as out in front of (an international Ebola crisis) as we possibly can be.”
He chided the fire union for its tactics.
“I do think that them putting a scare into the citizens by doing that is irresponsible,” Hood said. “If they have concerns or fears, for them to go to the media is not the proper way to do it.”
Standing in the cavernous ballroom at the union hall, Steele downplayed the notion that the news conference was a political ploy. This year has been marked by a series of confrontations between first responders and the city over collective bargaining agreements for the fire and police unions.
The San Antonio Police Officers Association has been negotiating its contract since March, but the firefighters union has yet to schedule an initial meeting.
Steele’s complaint to State Health Services goes beyond laying out his complaint of lacking education and resources.
He asks for specific, detailed recommendations about required levels of protection for first responders and then concludes his official complaint with a statement that appears political.
“The members of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association are not interested in being the canaries for the city manager of San Antonio so the city can save a few dollars and continue their consistent lack of preparation,” he wrote.
Steele took aim at Sculley during the news conference, saying that because the city held its public safety spending to two-thirds of the general fund, there’s less money for HAZMAT training. Emails from the fire brass explaining Ebola protocols aren’t sufficient, Steele said.
Steele said he took his concerns to the chief, including that first responders didn’t have the appropriate personal protective gear.
Hood, however, said that wasn’t the case and added that first responders have had repeated universal training on infectious diseases.
“Chris Steele has made no issue with my office on this,” he said. “The thing is we respond to some dangerous things as far as Hepatitis C, HIV, tuberculosis, on a daily basis, so when folks go through paramedic training, EMT training and refresher, they go over universal donning and doffing of their personal protective gear. We wear gloves, we have masks, we have eye protection on calls every single day.”
The department did need to acquire protective gowns and booties, Hood said, and that’s been done.
Both Steele and Hood separately acknowledged Tuesday that there have been two cases in San Antonio presented as Ebola, though neither turned out to be. Had either been confirmed, Hood said, the ambulance used for transport would have been sequestered and fogged, and the crew would have been put on reserve.
Fears over the virus struck the U.S. in late September when Liberian-born Thomas Eric Duncan became the first patient diagnosed with Ebola on American soil.
Nina Pham, a nurse who cared for him, contracted the virus while treating him.
A nurse in Spain has also been infected by treating a patient there who’d contracted the disease in West Africa.
There have been other Ebola scares since Duncan’s diagnosis, though no other cases have been confirmed.
The president of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association said Tuesday he has filed a complaint with the state claiming the city’s Fire Department lacks adequate preparations to handle potential Ebola cases here — a charge city officials immediately denied.
Chris Steele, president of the firefighter union, said at a news conference that the city’s first responders have not received adequate training, that they don’t have requisite personal protective equipment for treating suspected Ebola cases and that the city doesn’t have appropriate protocols in place to handle an actual incident.
“The city does not protect the firefighters,” Steele said. “That’s why we’re here today.”
City officials responded with disproval.
City Manager Sheryl Sculley called the union’s news conference “a reckless attempt to alarm our community,” and Fire Chief Charles Hood said the city has completed significant preparation procedures and has “been as out in front of (an international Ebola crisis) as we possibly can be.”
He chided the fire union for its tactics.
“I do think that them putting a scare into the citizens by doing that is irresponsible,” Hood said. “If they have concerns or fears, for them to go to the media is not the proper way to do it.”
Standing in the cavernous ballroom at the union hall, Steele downplayed the notion that the news conference was a political ploy. This year has been marked by a series of confrontations between first responders and the city over collective bargaining agreements for the fire and police unions.
The San Antonio Police Officers Association has been negotiating its contract since March, but the firefighters union has yet to schedule an initial meeting.
Steele’s complaint to State Health Services goes beyond laying out his complaint of lacking education and resources.
He asks for specific, detailed recommendations about required levels of protection for first responders and then concludes his official complaint with a statement that appears political.
“The members of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association are not interested in being the canaries for the city manager of San Antonio so the city can save a few dollars and continue their consistent lack of preparation,” he wrote.
Steele took aim at Sculley during the news conference, saying that because the city held its public safety spending to two-thirds of the general fund, there’s less money for HAZMAT training. Emails from the fire brass explaining Ebola protocols aren’t sufficient, Steele said.
Steele said he took his concerns to the chief, including that first responders didn’t have the appropriate personal protective gear.
Hood, however, said that wasn’t the case and added that first responders have had repeated universal training on infectious diseases.
“Chris Steele has made no issue with my office on this,” he said. “The thing is we respond to some dangerous things as far as Hepatitis C, HIV, tuberculosis, on a daily basis, so when folks go through paramedic training, EMT training and refresher, they go over universal donning and doffing of their personal protective gear. We wear gloves, we have masks, we have eye protection on calls every single day.”
The department did need to acquire protective gowns and booties, Hood said, and that’s been done.
Both Steele and Hood separately acknowledged Tuesday that there have been two cases in San Antonio presented as Ebola, though neither turned out to be. Had either been confirmed, Hood said, the ambulance used for transport would have been sequestered and fogged, and the crew would have been put on reserve.
Fears over the virus struck the U.S. in late September when Liberian-born Thomas Eric Duncan became the first patient diagnosed with Ebola on American soil.
Nina Pham, a nurse who cared for him, contracted the virus while treating him.
A nurse in Spain has also been infected by treating a patient there who’d contracted the disease in West Africa.
There have been other Ebola scares since Duncan’s diagnosis, though no other cases have been confirmed.
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©2014 the San Antonio Express-News